House advances 2015 budget plan

Tuesday

May 27, 2014 at 2:25 PMJun 4, 2014 at 1:30 PM

By Doug FinkeState Capitol Bureau

The Illinois House Tuesday approved a no-growth state budget that some legislators said could lead to layoffs, more delays in paying employee health insurance claims and again leave the state with a mounting pile of unpaid bills.

The roughly $35.7 billion plan leaves spending for most state agencies the same as in the current budget, even if they face increased expenses in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Even some Democrats gave the budget a lukewarm response.

“It’s not doomsday. It’s not making draconian cuts to services,” said Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, one of two Senate appropriations committee chairs. “What it’s doing is growing our backlog of bills. I don’t think this is the fiscally responsible way of going.”

Despite House passage, the spending plan was not sent to the Senate. Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, put a “hold” on the bill that keeps it in the House.

The legislation does not include money to cover employee pay raises due next year, forcing state agencies to decide how they will cover those raises and still live within their budgets.

Asked if the budget bill passed by the House could lead to layoffs, Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, chairman of the Human Services Appropriations Committee, said, “Yes, probably thousands of people.”

Steans said the Department of Human Services alone warned of 1,500 job cuts under the so-called doomsday budget during budget hearings this spring.

Harris also said agencies may be forced to leave jobs unfilled if people retire or leave for other reasons.

“Some agencies are going to have to make decisions based on the money they have,” Crespo said. “They can probably cut elsewhere to make sure they meet those needs. I don’t think they necessarily have to let people go.”

Elementary and secondary education will see an increase in the budget, but that will only allow schools to continue receiving 89 percent of the general state aid they are supposed to receive.

State employee health insurance also remains basically flat.

“There’s going to be some (payment) delays,” Crespo said.

Some health-care providers already wait more than a year to be reimbursed by the state for providing services to state workers.

Harris also acknowledged that the state’s bill backlog, which has been more than halved in the past four years, will likely grow again.

“As time goes by, I think you will definitely see that,” Harris said, adding that various estimates have been floated, but he understands the increase could be in the $2 billion range.

The budget approved by the House Tuesday represents a compromise between the steep cuts contained in the doomsday budget and the spending plan recommended by Gov. Pat Quinn that avoided cuts. Quinn’s budget, though, assumed the temporary income tax increase would be made permanent.

However, Madigan said only 34 of the Democrats’ 71 House members said they would vote to make the tax hike permanent. It needed 60 votes.

Much of the tax hike is set to expire Jan. 1. The individual rate will drop from 5 percent to 3.75 percent. Between that and other factors, the state could face the loss of up to $2 billion in revenue next year.

Harris said the budget approved Tuesday is better than the doomsday version.

“I think it is less harmful to the people back home,” he said.

However, he added that programs resulting from court orders and entitlements have to take priority over others.

“As the year goes on, things are going to get tighter and tighter,” he said. “You’re going to see wait times for services extend. Things people want in their community like child care, mental health services, teen programming could get crowded out. We need to find more revenue.”

“There’s going to have to be something done,” Steans said. “This is not sustainable. There’s clearly going to have to be other actions taken, be it revenue or more draconian kinds of cuts.”

House Republicans voted against the budget bills. They said the bills were only made public at 11 a.m., and the House was voting on them by 3 p.m., without holding any committee hearings.

“They have not been genuine. They have not been transparent,” said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. “The ink isn’t even dry on this. How can you vote for this?”

“This budget is hundreds and hundreds of pages,” said Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst. “We go through the pomp and circumstance to pretend everyone has had a chance to go through every line. The process has been a complete joke.”

“I think we’re digging a hole for the future,” said Rep. Wayne Rosenthal, R-Morrisonville, adding that he expects the House to take additional action on the budget after the majority Democrats see who wins the November election.